I tugged on the tether between us. It was as thin as my smallest finger, made of interlinking segments so closely fitted that it was impossible to see where they attached to one another, but they still bent and moved as needed to be flexible and accommodate our movements.
“Come with me,” I said, a bit more fiercely than I meant to. I must have looked a sight, bandaged, tied to this man and then leading him like a horse to where Alsoon stood. Could anyone see us? I looked back and forth, but only my own armsmen were watching. Well, they’d just have to get used to ridiculous sights if they were going to be around me now. I stood in Alsoon’s great shadow, leaning my shoulder against his leg for support. We had a little privacy here, hidden by his massive frame.
“Well, you’re certainly a sight,” I said, biting my lip and letting my gaze linger over him. His pouting lips were bruised and swollen. I could barely see one of those melting brown eyes—and the other wasn’t looking quite so warmly at me as it had before. “You’re not acting quite as friendly now that you aren’t trying to kidnap me.”
He shrugged.
“You don’t deny that you were trying to kidnap me?”
“What do you want me to say? Do you think I sweet talk princesses just for the fun of it?”
Ouch. “It wasn’t fun for you? There’s a blow. It’s funny how crime just isn’t as much fun as you think it will be—especially for the victim.”
He grunted.
“But I suppose that you know all about that, since your first crime wasn’t trying to abduct me. Your first crime was standing by and letting my mother die while she was a diplomat to your Kosad Plains!”
“The Tazminera?” he asked, recognition filling his eyes.
Oh, sweet Penspray, it was true. I let out a long breath. “Yes.”
“She was no peaceful diplomat,” he said, laughing in a harsh huff of breath.
I felt my hands begin to shake and I gritted my teeth to keep from launching myself at him.
“Then you don’t deny that you were there? You didn’t stop the death of the only person I ever loved?” My words grew louder until I was yelling at him. I tugged the tether, yanking him forward, and he stumbled, falling to his knees.
“Mercy doesn’t run in your family, it would seem,” he said.
“Don’t tell me who I am, dog!” I yelled. “Don’t tell me who she was! I should kick you to paste right here on the end of this leash.”
“I’m not the only one on a leash,” he growled, jerking hard on his own end of the tether.
I stumbled, thrashing and landed on my hands and knees. Alsoon trumpeted angrily, stomping his front foot, and Rusk Hawkwing had to roll to the side to avoid being crushed. The tether tangled around my arm and pulled me with him, cursing as I went.
“Stop!” I yelled, just as we settled into the dust. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Trying not to be killed by that beast.”
“That beast is my best friend. And our transportation back to civilization. Haven’t you ever ridden an elephant?”
He avoided my gaze as he pulled himself to his feet. I followed him up and glared at him, hands on my hips.
“Barbarian! I should have guessed that they’d strapped me to a useless bumpkin. You’ve never even ridden an elephant.”
“That didn’t seem to be much of a problem a few nights ago when you were kissing me,” he said, lowering his voice.
This time I really did try to kick him. Even injured, his reflexes were fast and he dodged my kick easily.
“If you ever bring that up again,” I hissed, “I’ll cut off your hand just to be free of you.”
There was a cough, and I looked over my shoulder to see a slave girl with a heap of linens and a bowl of water.
“Would you be free if you cut off my hand? The man who chained me said that if either one of us dies then the other does, too.”
It was all true. Not that I’d admit it. I shrugged in agitation. I could feel his pain like the buzzing of a bee on the other end of the tether. It was like a tiny ball of pain in my own head, chipping away at me. Did they tell him about that, too? Did they tell him that I’d feel all his hurts and he mine?
“Attend to him,” I said to the servant girl, stepping away. The blood rushed to my face and I bit my lip until I tasted blood. What was she going to say to the other slaves when we got back? We were both dusty and standing far too close. Although, in our defense there was little we could do about the tether. I didn’t want to think about any of it. I wanted to walk away and get some space. I felt like clawing my own skin off as I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to walk away. Not now, and not for many years to come.
She placed the bowl on the ground and began to lay out the linens and clothing for Rusk, but her hands shook so much that she couldn’t seem to get them the way that she liked them, stacking them, knocking them over and then stacking them again. What was the point of being given servants if they couldn’t serve? I would have to talk to Jakinda about her choice of staff. Really!
“I’ll do it,” I said, pointing towards my guards’ elephants. I tried to show her in my expression how much I disapproved of her uselessness. “Go back to the Captain of the Guards and see if she has other work for you.”
Taking one of the linens from the stack, I wet it in the dish and began to dab his wounds. His breath was ragged and as I had to draw very close to tend to him. I felt the heat rolling off his skin. Did he have a fever? He was certainly a mess. Almost everywhere that I could see skin it was gouged, cut or bruised. They couldn’t have cleaned him up before binding him to me? I should speak to Amandera about General Komorodi. This was inexcusable.
It took a moment before I remembered that Amandera wouldn’t care what I had to say about Komorodi or anyone for that matter. Despite titles and brands, I really had very little power. The wounds on his arms were not so severe as the ones on his face. His muscles were firm and though they were bruised the cuts weren’t deep. I tried to be gentle as I turned his arms and hands around to look for any wounds I may have missed, dabbing them with clean water and binding any that were deep. He sat still, allowing me to move him as I willed. His eyes followed me, deep and brooding—as if he were the one who was devastated by all this and not me.
Satisfied I’d taken care of his arms, I turned to his face. The lip and eye I washed, but there was little I could do to bind them. He allowed my hands to probe his wounds and apply bandages where I could. How could his face be so attractive when it was mashed up like this?
As I wrapped a bandage around a wound on his skull, being careful not to think too hard about the pretty way the tight curls met the smooth skin of his forehead, he finally spoke.
“I thought I was a barbarian. A dog.”
“Yes,” I agreed, motioning him to take off his sleeveless shirt, and then growing frustrated at his slow, halting movements and tugging it off myself. He hissed in pain. His side was a mass of bruises and a wide contusion was black with dried blood. The skin around it was angry and red. I cocked my head to one side, considering it. The source of the fever, perhaps?
“Then why are you helping me?” he asked. His eyes had a slightly hollow look.
“Why haven’t you tried to kidnap me? We’re alone after all?” I countered, but I already knew the answer. It was the same as mine. Our fates were joined now.
“I cannot,” he said, and his eyes were bright like he was about to cry. I shifted uncomfortably. What would I do if I ended up chained to a man who broke down crying every few minutes? It would make for a very long training period.
“Did the army break you somehow? Torture you?” I asked, worried now that I was tied to a bigger anchor than I had expected. If he was emotionally broken, what would I do with him?
“They punished me for escaping,” he said as if it hardly mattered, but his next words were anguished, “and showed me what would happen if I let anything happen to you, or failed to teach you what you need to learn, or allowed myse
lf to be released from our tether without permission from the High Tazmin.”
Maybe that was how he got the contusion. Maybe he would be terribly wounded if he didn’t teach me. I always assumed it would be me who wanted to keep my san’lelion close. After all, if he died I would lose any hope of a pleasant future role. Perhaps whatever they had threatened him with was even more fearsome.
“Well, whatever they did left marks,” I said. His head whipped up and anger filled his gaze.
“Easy,” I said, holding up a hand. I had a foreboding feeling like I did the one time I was near the stables and saw one of the trainers trampled by a new elephant. “I’ll do what I can for that infected wound and then we’ll get you better care in Al’Karida. You will be fine. I’m not going to let you die in my care.”
“I thought you were the one in my care. My dar’lelion. I was told that your training is my responsibility.”
I frowned as I carefully cleaned the black wound. “I don’t know what they told you, but I’m your superior in every way and that makes you my charge, not the other way around. I won’t let you die on me any more than I would let my elephant die for no reason.”
What did he want me to say? I couldn’t heal these wounds with words. I spooled out a length of linen and began to bandage his side. The way he was standing suggested he was hurt even worse than he looked. I needed to find him a healer as quickly as I could.
“Even though I was there when your mother died?” he asked, and the tears in his liquid eyes finally spilled down his face. I ignored them, winding the linen around his wound.
“Don’t misunderstand. This is not forgiveness, just duty.”
I finished binding his wound and handed him the clothing while I turned my back.
“Here. Get dressed. It’s time we were gone.”
What was he doing to me? Why did I feel—of all things—compassion for him? I was going to have to remind myself that even though he’d been poorly treated, he was still an enemy. Compassion from me should not, and would not, equal absolving him. He was not merely reckless, he was evil.
Chapter Sixteen: San’lelion
Our three elephants wound their way down the hillside, swaying and rocking on the narrow path. Far, far out in the distance was the Great Green Ocean and over it was the golden Ring of the Heavens. I knew from my lessons that if you set a glass here you could see where the ring dipped into the ocean and if you sailed towards it, you would find the Ribs of Ochrand—the strange islands that jutted up like ribs from within the ocean.
In front of that far horizon, the view of Al’Karida, glowing golden in the dawn was breathtaking. I ran my eyes over it and then over it again, trying to take in every hill and spire, certain that I’d never see a city so glorious again. Perhaps they were right and the Gods really had built the lattice bridges that wove through the city like the threads in Ra’shara. Splitting it asunder, the mighty Penspray roared in her banks, angry and turbulent. Maybe she felt like I did. Chained to my enemy— not just my nation’s enemy, but my personal enemy. I felt him bobbing unsteadily behind me on Alsoon. He gasped with every dip in our path, one hand patting Alsoon lightly.
He knows I don’t mean to hurt him. Alsoon spoke of others so rarely, that his thoughts surprised me.
Rusk shouldn’t be talking to Alsoon, even just with pats of his hand. Alsoon was my friend. But this was only the beginning, wasn’t it? Was there anything I wouldn’t have to share in the coming days, or maybe even years? My breath was coming a little too quickly. One day at a time, Tylira. Take it one day at a time. Today all I had to do was keep him from dying and get us back to the inn.
Jakinda stopped her elephant before me and Alsoon stepped up beside her war-elephant without any qualm, despite the evil look in the other animal’s black eye. Jakinda, Buhari and Sesay sat in the multi-passenger saddle, level with us. As we drew even with them, Rusk began to sway and toppled towards Jakinda. Buhari lunged forward, throwing himself between her and my san’lelion and catching his shoulders.
“Easy, soldier,” Rusk gasped. “I’m not attacking your captain.”
“I know you by reputation, General,” Buhari said, shoving him back to his seat on Alsoon. Rusk swayed there a moment before catching himself. What did he mean? Rusk Hawkwing had a reputation? And wait ... he was a general?
“Isn’t he too young to have a reputation already?” I asked, irritation flooding my tone.
“My pardon, Tazminera,” Buhari said, “but our comrades in arms claim he is a superior tactician and fearsome in battle.”
“He doesn’t look too fearsome,” I muttered, twisting behind me to grab hold of Rusk. “If we don’t find a way to tie him into this saddle he might not make it back to Al’Karida.”
“I’ve survived worse,” Rusk said, his eyes closed and his voice a sigh. He looked boyish and vulnerable, not at all like a fearsome warrior.
“Well, I won’t pick you up off the ground if you fall off Alsoon,” I said, pulling a rope out of the packs and wrapping it around his waist to tie him into the saddle.
Toure scrambled up the side of Alsoon and cinched the rope around Rusk more deftly than I had. He smiled and I thought I saw a hint of a yellow sweet in his mouth. “This way is better, Tazminera.”
“If I fall off the elephant you’ll be falling too, princess,” Rusk said, his words were garbled and hard to understand.
“Why are we stopping?” I asked Jakinda.
“Is not securing him so that you don’t fall head first off a great-elephant enough reason?” she asked.
I raised my eyebrows and lifted my chin—a warning. Did she really think I was in the mood for jabs and barbs?
“The High Tazminera signaled us from below. She is approaching on her elephant.”
Great. Because I hadn’t already seen enough of her today. Now I’d have to endure more of her haughty demands. If I had one thing to be thankful for today it was that I hadn’t been tethered to Amandera.
Amandera’s elephant arrived quickly, trumpeting as he came to a halt. Apparently, she trusted my guards enough to leave her own retinue behind for once.
“Stop dallying with your new pet, Tylira. We have work to attend to now that your position is declared,” she said, her nose held high and a look of triumph in her eyes. She smiled slightly as she arranged her silk sarette into a more pleasing fold. “I’m pleased that the High Tazmin has such plans for you. Now, more than ever, we must milk that spark of talent out of you. If you thought things were hard before, you should prepare yourself. Once I begin your true training, I will make you dream at night about how easy you had things on our journey to Al’Karida.”
My mouth hung open. She thought she could be harder on me? As if she hadn’t already almost ground me into the dust with her so called ‘training?’
“Don’t sit here gaping like a fish on the docks,” Amandera said. “We will find the sparkle of gold under all that dross of yours, one way or another.” She seemed very pleased as she poured herself some of that endless tea that she seemed always to have ready. “I will be so pleased to present you in proper fashion to the High Tazmin. You are something of a pet project of mine.” Did she expect me to be flattered that she’d chosen me to torture? “In light of that, you will move all your things and retinue to the Grand Hall of Doves as soon as we reach Al’Karida. I won’t have you whiling away the days in uselessness at some peasant inn. We have far too much work to do.”
No! Bad enough that I was chained to an enemy. Bad enough that she was making me a pet project, but she was making me live with her now? I didn’t realize that I hadn’t answered, until I saw her paused with her tea half-way to her mouth and a look of infinite patience on her face. But what other option was there?
“Do I need to remind you of what will happen if you run from us now that you have been branded as blood? You will have your head removed on the steps of the Ivory Palace and your remains hung at the city gates for all to see. I’m afraid you won’t look as charming with
out a head.”
I swallowed, licking my lips. I didn’t need her to remind me of the penalty. I knew it well. One thing we had drilled into us in the Silken Gardens was the rules of what our lives would be after. Our dynasty gave life and strength to our people. Mistakes and willfulness could jeopardize all of that.
“As you command, High Tazminera,” I said.
“Very good,” Amandera said with an expression very close to a smile. Was that how cats looked at mice just before they finally took that killing bite? “And don’t play too much with your new toy. He’s an enemy meant to be an object lesson and a source of new learning for you, not a plaything.”
“I had no intention of playing with him, High Tazminera.”
“That’s not what the soldiers who captured him said. You should know there will be very serious consequences for him if he is ever caught touching you in that manner again. We have the means to make him suffer.”
Oh, I knew all about Amandera’s ability to make people suffer.
“And you, of course, if you are foolish enough to abandon your blood.”
I bowed my head, hoping she would see submission, rather than the angry tears dripping down my face. Stifled and fenced in on every side, there would never be room for me to be free. I had thought I was a slave to our traditions and codes in the Silken Gardens. It had never occurred to me that it might be the freest time of my life.
When I looked up, Amandera’s elephant was far down the path ahead of us and Buhari was finished tying the ropes around Rusk. Rusk’s eyes were still closed and he swayed bonelessly, like he was only half conscious.
“He needs a poultice for the wound,” Buhari said.
“We’ll have one ordered when we reach the inn, Tazminera,” Jakinda said carefully. Judging by her expression she knew what was going on in my mind, but what did she know of having to sacrifice your whole life for someone else? What did she know of having to constantly stamp down your own desires for your duty and the fate life had assigned you? What did anyone know?
Teeth of the Gods Page 10
